Trade War Endgame Starting the trade war was “easy” for Mr. Trump, sustaining it will become more difficult for domestic political reasons. That fact was revealed by this week’s Senate Finance Committee hearing during which its members expressed skepticism about the trade actions already taken, let alone those yet to come. More countries are taking “rebalancing” actions (India and Turkey with bound average duties of 74.4 percent and 50.3 percent, respectively), and this will force the Trump administration to manufacture new leverage if it is to reach its goal of improving the U.S. terms of trade. Peter Coy, et al wrote in Bloomberg Business Week that under game theory, “probing a partner’s weaknes...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
Tomorrow is the Juneteenth federal holiday, and the USDA, along with the rest of the federal government and the CME, will be closed, so the monthly Cattle on Feed report was released a day early. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity on 1 June amounted...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.